Degrees of Separation
by sasha1600
Summary: Part of the ‘Future Perfect’ series. Katie’s new boss worries about the young PhD fitting in on a Marine base. Warning: spanking of adult. Don’t like? Don’t read!


**Degrees of Separation**

**Summary:** Part of the 'Future Perfect' series. Katie's new boss worries about the young PhD fitting in on a Marine base. **Warning:** spanking of adult. Don't like? Don't read!

**Disclaimer:** Katie, Leigh and the colonel are mine; the rest belong to other people.

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A/N: This is part of the 'Future Perfect' series, which features Katie and Leigh, the twin daughters of Tim and Abby. This story follows Fortune's Plaything and will make more sense if you read that first.

**Warning: this story contains the disciplinary spanking of an adult. If you have a problem with that, click on that 'back' button now. You've been warned.**

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Lt.-Col. Bill Montgomery flipped through the file of papers on his desk. The background check for the new technical consultant, whom he still thought of as the video-game girl, had been processed with unheard of speed. Of course, it helped that the girl's whole family had security clearances of their own. The only real checking that needed to be done was a look at her college and grad school activities; the in-depth family history was already on file.

Montgomery wasn't surprised to discover that there was nothing particularly noteworthy in McGee's file. Good degrees. No questionable club memberships. No arrests. A whiny note about the Mounties from the FBI agent who'd been in charge of the check suggested that it was the rookie's first experience having to liaise with the RCMP, but Montgomery had done enough research about the PhD programme McGee had attended to know that he couldn't really fault her for having chosen one of the best research centres in the world. A Canadian doctorate hardly made her a security risk. The closest thing to a black mark against her was that the external examiner at her dissertation defence had been a Vietnam draft dodger, but he could hardly hold that against her when she didn't have any say in his selection as a committee member.

No, there was no concern about the girl being a threat to base security.

The only question was whether the demure civilian would be able to work with his training co-ordinators. They were all good men, but if McGee was like the last holder of a civilian education he'd had to work with, and was used to being coddled, to deadlines not mattering, to being validated and reassured when things didn't work as expected, then they would definitely have a problem.

Montgomery scrawled a signature across the form that indicated he'd reviewed the file and made to close the folder. His eye fell on a name towards the end of the 'family history' section that he'd somehow missed when he'd read it, and he froze.

The years seemed to fall away as he realised that his new computer geek's extended family included the man who had single-handedly transformed him from a screwed-up kid to a Marine who showed enough promise to be selected for the Enlisted Commissioning Program.

He shifted unconsciously in his seat, remembering all to clearly _how_ he had accomplished that.

X X X

Pvt. Bill Montgomery leaned his head against the bars of his cell and groaned.

His head was killing him, and he felt as though he'd swallowed sandpaper. The fact that he'd most likely be spending the next month in the brig was actually a comfort. He'd be feeling better by the time he'd have to face his hard-ass bastard of a Gunny riding him mercilessly.

He'd barely finished the thought when, to his dismay, he heard the hard-ass's voice in the next room. A few minutes later, the door to the holding area opened and the man stormed in, obviously furious. The local sheriff's deputy trailed morosely behind him.

'I really should hold on to him until my boss gets in this morning. He might want...'

'I told you I'll take care of it, Deputy.'

'But...'

'He's a Marine, Deputy. We take care of our own dirty laundry. Besides, what I have in mind will be a much more effective penalty than anything your Sheriff can do to him.'

Montgomery's shoulders sagged. It really hadn't occurred to him that the Gunny would have to come get him. And he somehow didn't think it would be a quiet ride back to base.

So he was surprised when he was frogmarched to the car in silence and deposited roughly in the passenger seat without a word. It wasn't until they were driving through the main gates that the Gunny spoke to him at all, and that was just to demand whether he had a change of clothes in his locker at the base gym. When he admitted that he did, he found himself dropped off with orders to shower and change.

Twenty minutes later, clean and dressed in standard-issue sweats, he slouched out of the locker room and found the Gunny waiting in the deserted exercise room.

'What the hell were you thinking, Montgomery?'

The low, dangerous tone was unexpected. He had been sure he'd get the pissed-off bark that he was, by now, very used to hearing from his superiors.

'Dunno.'

'You _don't know_ what possessed you to get drunk and steal a jeep from the base motor pool?'

'It seemed like a good idea at the time. Like you said, I was drunk...'

'You were ON DUTY!'

There. That was the bark.

'I was bored.'

'YOU WERE BORED?'

The older man stared at him in disbelief.

'Uh... anyway... thanks for letting me shower first. The last time I was in the brig...'

'You planning on making a career out of screwing up, son?'

The disconcerting tone of voice was back.

'Like I said, I was bored...'

'So you decided to amuse yourself. I can see that.'

The disconcerting tone of voice was now accompanied by an even more disconcerting smile.

'How old are you?'

'Nineteen.'

'So you shouldn't even have been drinking at all, much less drinking on duty, and drinking and driving.'

Montgomery shrugged.

'You know how it is, Gunny...'

'Yeah. I know.'

'So, how long do you think I'll get this time? Thirty days?'

'You're not going back to the brig, Private.'

It was Montgomery's turn to be silent, too surprised to reply. Surely Gunny wasn't saying that he was going to cover for him. Was he?

'Tell me, what would your father do, if you'd done something like this at home?'

Montgomery blinked, forcing himself out of his stunned silence in order to answer the unexpected question.

'Doubt he would have noticed...'

Montgomery was staring at his feet now, and missed his Gunny's pursed lips and slight nod.

'Well, I noticed. And I don't think more time in the brig is going to do you any good.'

Montgomery's head shot up and he felt the blood draining from his face. Gunny wasn't really going to push for a discharge over this, was he?

'Uh... Gunny... I... uh...'

He stammered self-consciously for a few minutes before the Gunny finally put him out of his misery.

'Here's what's going to happen now, son. First, I'm going to give you a whipping that I guarantee you will not forget. And then, I'm going to make damn sure that you don't have time to get bored enough to get into too much more trouble.'

Montgomery didn't hear anything after 'whipping'.

'You're going to... what? No way, Gunny... you can't...'

'I can, and I'm going to. Unless you're tired of being a Marine. I think you have potential, Private, but the Corps doesn't have time for knuckleheads who aren't interested in getting their acts together.'

'But...'

'_Official_ responses to your idiot stunts haven't been doing much good, and I don't see much chance of that changing. So, it's your choice... the _unofficial_ response, or I recommend letting you find out just how well your shit goes over in the civilian world.'

Montgomery hesitated. There was no way he wanted to agree to what the Gunny was proposing, but he didn't like the alternative, either. Surely there must be some way...

The Gunny raised one eyebrow at him.

'Well?'

He realised he was nodding only when he heard the brusque 'C'mon, let's get this over with.'

The Gunny took him firmly by the arm and spun him around, using the momentum to propel him face-down onto a weight bench. The reality of what was happening suddenly sunk in and he panicked, but his efforts to push himself to his feet failed, a strong hand planted in the middle of his back keeping him sprawled helplessly. He heard the soft clink of a buckle being undone, and his struggles became more frantic.

A moment later, his ass exploded in pain at the first stroke of the belt. Another stoke followed immediately, and the pain grew exponentially. Expletives flowed freely from his mouth and he lashed out blindly with his feet, but the hoped-for contact with a knee or shin never happened. Again and again he felt the searing blaze of leather. It seemed like it would never end. An eternity later, his struggles weakening and his protests fading in exhaustion, the onslaught finally stopped.

He bolted upright as soon as his Gunny released him, and he glared mutinously at the man responsible for the throbbing agony still radiating from his burning ass.

'I suggest you get used to the idea of somebody giving a damn when you screw up, or you're going to find this posting painful in more ways than one.'

With that pronouncement, Gunny had once more seized him by the arm, and marched him back outside to the car.

To his dismay, he'd had to report for duty an hour later, and the Gunny had cut him no slack, expecting him to keep up with the rest of the guys despite his lack of sleep and his sore butt. And, when he'd become a bit too vocal in his complaints about the S.O.B. leading the field exercise, Gunny had hauled him over to a standpipe, pulled a sliver of soap from his pocket, and actually washed his mouth out like a delinquent schoolboy, in front of the rest of the unit.

But, the next week, Gunny had chosen him to lead one of the teams in an exercise.

After that, he'd put him in charge of organising a competition with another unit.

And then made him responsible for co-ordinating with base command in planning an overnight drill.

The extra work had fulfilled the Gunny's promise to keep him too busy to be bored. But more than that, the responsibility had challenged him, motivated him, made him determined to prove himself.

Gunny had been transferred at the end of the year, and Montgomery had been relieved to see him go, having endured several more spankings in the meantime.

He'd had found out only later, when his CO at the time recommended him for the Enlisted Commissioning Program, that the Gunny left a note in his file recommending him for consideration for the ECP as soon as he became eligible.

X X X

Montgomery shook himself out of his reverie. He blinked hard, still not entirely sure he was seeing the name of the man who had somehow recognised the officer potential in a screwed-up kid and forced him to get his act together.

He smiled to himself at the thought that, with a godfather like Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Kate McGee would fit right in with his Marines.


End file.
